Extraordinary Year for Agrisearch

AgriSearch, the Northern Ireland Agricultural Research
and Development Council, has had an extra-ordinary year according to
chairman James Campbell.

Reporting at the AGM of the Council, the chairman referred to
the recent cuts in government funding and changes in the costing
model for projects carried out by the Agri-Food
and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).

“Over this past year AgriSearch committee members, most of them
farmers and all of them unpaid volunteers, worked their way through
a DARD consultation process and had several new research projects
approved in principle for co-funding.

“These projects could be of
real practical value in helping make NI Farming Plc more competitive
and more environmentally friendly. But work on these projects won’t
start this year much to the frustration of those on the AgriSearch
board and our sheep, beef and dairy advisory committees.

“This is
not in keeping with the regional government’s acceptance of the Agri-Food
Strategy Board’s report. That report urged the NI government to commission
research into ‘best practice’ systems for sustainable intensification
on-farm. It also called for a doubling in the draw-down of EU funding
for agri-food innovation over the coming three years.

“Until now most
research projects selected for support by AgriSearch have been co-funded
by DARD and carried out in co-operation with AFBI."

“With AFBI costings
for research being pushed up since the 2013 report of the NI Comptroller
and Auditor General, the continuation of agricultural research based
in the province is an issue for DARD and AFBI to address urgently.”

“Farming,
like any business competing globally, must continuously innovate
to survive and thrive” James added.

Looking beyond regional co-funding
frustrations the AgriSearch chairman highlighted the UK government
Agri-Tech
Strategy fund worth £160 million to support advances in
‘sustainable intensification’ with the livestock sector as a priority.

“This
is an opportunity for NI farmers through AgriSearch to be involved
with UK wide research projects.

“Further opportunities for AgriSearch
exist in the EU
Horizon 2020 programme, which is investing four billion
euro in agri-food research and innovation over six years.

“Given the
evolving environment in which AgriSearch exists the Trustees are
undertaking a strategic review of the organisation. All involved
in AgriSearch are adamant it exists to enhance returns for lamb,
beef and milk producers. To that end it was decided to work with
AHWNI, Animal Health and Welfare NI, which is pushing forward with
schemes to reduce and eliminate unregulated costly endemic conditions
such as BVD and Johne’s
disease that are having a major impact on
herd health and performance.

“Also in this past year closer links
with the Livestock and Meat Commission for NI proved very successful,
with the LMC having opted to help fund sheep research projects selected
for support by AgriSearch.”

Project Manager’s ReportFLUKE and SOIL PROJECTS UNDERWAY
“Several key projects supported by AgriSearch started this past year,
including the major Liver Fluke study being led by Liverpool University,”
Jason
Rankin told the AGM

“Though mainly funded by the UK Biotechnology
and Biological Sciences Research Council for the first time it brings
all the UK ruminant R&D levy bodies
together in supporting a project.

“This means the farming sector through
EBLEX, AgriSearch, HCC, QMS and DairyCo are co-funding investigations
of real value to all British cattle and sheep farmers. Work on a
scale, which AgriSearch alone could not fund.”

“On a regional level
this past year GrassCheck continued to provide farmers with current
and predicted grass growth figures. As a bonus GrassCheck data proved
pivotal in providing the evidence needed for the £1 million DARD
Fodder Transport Scheme bringing lower cost feed from the mainland
in the horrendous spring of 2013.

“Looking ahead to 2015 the results will become available from a
new project on soil compaction across a range of NI farms. This work
part funded by AgriSearch and undertaken by AFBI will also evaluate
remedial methods on a variety of farms. Plans are afoot to run a
series of farm walks on soil compaction early next summer.

“In total 10 projects selected by AgriSearch for £360,281 of co-funding
were to be started in the past financial year.2013/14 provided £1,354,988
of complementary funding was available from other sources including
DARD.

“However, the Department was unable to commission any new projects
under the Evidence and Innovation Strategy in 2014/15, but these
projects are now in the call for support during 2015/16.

“Thankfully
three projects supported by AgriSearch, which were being co-funded
by DARD under the Research Challenge Fund Programme, are set to commence
in the next few weeks.

“As the chairman has highlighted, in response to regional government
financial problems AgriSearch is looking to co-fund research of real
relevance to farmers in conjunction with other organisation across
these islands and the EU. Indeed AgriSearch has hosted meetings in
NI of both the European Cattle Innovation Partnership and the UK
Red Meat Joint R&D Committee.

“A golden opportunity to showcase the on-farm research being done
through AFBI, which is exactly the type of bottom up approach the
European Commission envisions in their Horizon 2020 Programme.”

Paying tribute to those
at AFBI and CAFRE, who worked so closely with AgriSearch Jason noted
the success of a range of joint Knowledge Transfer initiatives, including
farm walks, booklets, IT tools and industry seminars.

“Two AgriSearch
funded PhD students Amanda Dunn and Mark Little started their work
in Sept 2013. Amanda’s thesis is on ‘Colostrum for Beef and Dairy
Calves in NI’ and Mark, an experienced vet, is aiming to identity
relationships between nutrition and immune function in dairy cattle.”

Concluding his AGM report AGM Jason emphasised that in order
to avail of new opportunities for research funding AgriSearch is
moving beyond being merely a co-funder of research to taking on a
much more proactive role.

Hale and Farewell
After six years’ service as Trustees, Mary McCormack and David Workman have stepped
down from the AgriSearch board. Thanking them, Chairman James Campbell also
paid tribute to the nine years service by Douglas Rowe, who retired from the
board in October 2013 and was replaced by Wilbert Mayne.

Three new Trustees
were welcomed onto the Board at the AGM; Allistir Mitchell, Michael
Bell and John Henning.

The chairman said: “The amount of time, experience
and expertise our unpaid Trustees and advisory committee members
willingly devote to AgriSearch is a great contribution to the future
competitiveness of NI Farming Plc”.

Levy Change
Unchanged since AgriSearch was founded by farmers in 1997, the research
levy collected on cattle processed in Northern Ireland has been
raised this year to 40p a head, with 10p of that to go to another
independent industry organisation, Animal Health and Welfare NI,
as it battles to rid herds of BVD and Johne’s disease.

The levy
on lambs remains, after 15 years, at 5p a head and on milk at 0.02p
per litre, equal to £1.60 per 8000 litre lactation.